Monday, November 13, 2023

An Ancient Saying about Death (1 Thess. 4:13-18)

Been working on a message from 1 Thess. 4 on the Christian and death and stumbled upon an ancient Epicurean epitaph in Latin:
Non fui, fui, non sum, non curo.

I was not, I was, I am not, I care not.
Since I couldn't find the Greek equivalent anywhere I thought I'd provide my own in case anyone is interested.


Obviously, to the non-Christian mind, this life is all there is. Hence the ambivalence about the future state after death. They would tell themselves (my paraphrase), "Before I was born I didn't exist. Then I was born and lived. Now I am non-existent again, and I don't really care." Incidentally, the fact that the ancients circulated such a saying indicates that we are dealing with a question that was asked in antiquity -- what happens to me after I die? The passage quoted here may fairly be taken as representative of the common view.